Mexico embarrassed by flaw-filled school textbooks

AP, MEXICO CITY

Mexican children trooped back into their classrooms yesterday, and they were going to have a quick lesson: Not just school kids make mistakes.

Their brand new textbooks have the kinds of errors that they are supposed to be learning not to make — words written with a “c” instead of an “s,” too many commas, not enough accents and at least one city located in the wrong state.

The foul-up is shaping up as a national embarrassment in the midst of a planned government overhaul of Mexico’s much criticized school system.

Teachers are getting a sheet to try to manually correct at least 117 mistakes that the Mexican Department of Education has acknowledged it found only after 235 million elementary textbooks were being printed.

“It’s unfortunate these things happen with the children’s textbooks,” said Consuelo Mendoza, president of the national parent teachers association. “We are talking about the education of millions of children.”

Mexican Education Secretary Emilio Chuayffet has called the errors “unforgivable,” but is asking for the public’s understanding. He blames Mexico’s previous administration for the stumble.

He says he was faced with the predicament of choosing between stopping the printing of flawed textbooks so they could be corrected and making sure the country’s 26 million school children had textbooks at the start of classes.

Earlier this month, Chuayffet pledged to investigate to find out who was responsible. He also gave the Mexican Academy of Language the task of reviewing the textbooks so future editions will not have the errors.

While Chuayffet has called the slipups inexcusable, his department has been less than transparent about the problem, failing to release the list of the errors to the public or even to the language academy members.

The news blog Animal Politico did an independent review and found that words are misspelled in the Spanish textbook and accents forgotten or misplaced. A geography text wrongly puts the Caribbean resort city of Tulum in the state of Yucatan instead of Quintana Roo, it said.

The scandal erupted in the summer and the rhetoric has heated up this month as teachers take to the streets to protest a sweeping educational overhaul that will submit them to evaluation and loosen the control held by their union over hiring and firing.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto last week sent a package of rules on implementing the education law that was enacted in February.

Angry teachers responded by blocking several major streets in the capital and causing a major traffic jam. The union promised more to come if legislators pass laws that mandate the firing of teachers who do not take or pass evaluation exams.

Political observers say the textbook scandal is just the latest sign of the weakness of Mexico’s education system.

Only 47 percent of the country’s children graduate from the equivalent of high school. Mexico spends a greater share of its budget on education than any other member of the 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, but scores the lowest in standardized tests.

Experts say many teachers are unqualified, and under the old rules have been able to buy and sell their positions, which are relatively well-paying for Mexico’s rural areas.

At the same time, teachers point to a host of problems they have nothing to do with: class sizes up to 40 students, curriculum that promotes rote learning over engagement, a lack of state money for maintenance.